This year’s winning team was Power Plug, a home automation device that allows you to turn off appliances in your house with your smart phone. The team, lead by Ben Hammel, was soldering and programming throughout the weekend to give the judges a full demonstration by turning on and off a light connected to their device in the back of the room with their smart phone.

2nd Place and People’s Choice Winner: Elephant Tracks

Since an elephant never forgets Elephant Tracks allows you to put wireless tags on your travel packing list items which sends an alert if you have left them behind. Go to www.elephanttracks.co and check out their video. Team led by Evan Thacker.

3rd Place: Gigity

Swipe left to pass, swipe right to accept a job. Gigity allows job hunters to pick up “gigs” though their smart phone by swiping to review and accept small jobs. Payment is tracked and processed through the app interface. Team led by Max Thom.

Other Teams:

Zippy allows small local businesses to provide same day shipping and delivery by activating taxi and other drivers to deliver the goods. Through their platform small businesses can list available goods online and Zippy will arrange pickup and delivery.

Festival Doctors brings unique family friendly festivals to the Biggest Little City. Their first event being an international marionette festival.

Special thanks to UNR’s Innevation Center, EDAWN, UNR Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship, UNR College of Journalism and College of Business for supporting the event. We’d also like to thank our fantastic speakers and coaches, Jonathan Lee, Matt Westfield, Colin Loretz, David Lewandowski and Alice Heiman.

Look out for the next Startup Weekend Reno that will be open to the broader public in April 2016. For more details and to stay up to date on entrepreneurial events subscribe to Reno’s Startup Digest, www.startupdigest.com/digests/reno

Startup Weekend Las Vegas (Apr. 10-12) at University of Nevada, Las Vegas is just four weeks away and it’s time you jumped in. Apart from visiting the entertainment capital of the world, here are the top 5 reasons why you should be there:

1. Expand Your Network
Entrepreneurs, developers, designers, and marketers will be there and you’ll want to connect with them. Local tech and startup leaders will be at Startup Weekend as mentors and judges. Get some one-on-one time with the movers and shakers in Las Vegas. Just look at our judging panel, it’s made up of four investors and two successful entrepreneurs. Plus, Startup Weekend is a great way to show off your skills and meet awesome talent in the community.

2. Re-EnergizeFree your mind off the daily routine and feel inspired by working on a fast paced project or idea for the weekend. At Startup Weekend, attendees are excited to participate, work, and to help others create something great.

3. Work Outside of Your Box
“If you’re curious to test the waters as a front-end or backend developer for apps or websites, or if you have a skill for sales communication that you’d like to sharpen, this is the perfect opportunity to dabble. Startup Weekend is a learning environment and there are always people of different skill levels in attendance. Those attending with more experience are happy to teach others and give advice.” -Jaclyn Hudak, Ready Maker Design @JaclynHudak

4. Challenge Yourself
Are you an expert in website design and want to learn app development? Is there an area of design that you wish you had more experience in? Whether it’s creating apps, websites, logos, or marketing, you can join a team who needs you to create something quickly; a great way to challenge yourself and build new skills without the pressure to be absolutely perfect.

5. Build A Business“The bottom line is that Startup Weekend is the best place to launch a startup. If you’ve had an idea in your head but haven’t done anything about it, there’s no better event to get started. You’ll be surrounded by really smart and driven people who want to work together on building something from the ground up. Maybe you’ll work on your idea, or maybe someone else’s idea will pique your interest. Startup Weekend is the place to validate a business idea, build a product and launch a startup in just 54 hours.” – Mike Chan, Co-founder of Ribl @mikewchan

Startup Weekend Vegas 2014 (Nov. 21-23) at the Innevation Center is just three weeks away and it’s time you jumped in. Apart from visiting the entertainment capital of the world, here are the top 5 reasons why you should be there:

1. Expand Your Network
Entrepreneurs, developers, designers, and marketers will be there and you’ll want to connect with them. Local tech and startup leaders will be at Startup Weekend as mentors and judges. Get some one-on-one time with the movers and shakers in Las Vegas. Just look at our judging panel, it’s made up of four investors and two successful entrepreneurs. Plus, Startup Weekend is a great way to show off your skills and meet awesome talent in the community.

2. Re-EnergizeFree your mind off the daily routine and feel inspired by working on a fast paced project or idea for the weekend. At Startup Weekend attendees are excited to participate, work, and to help others create something great.

3. Work Outside of Your Box
“If you’re curious to test the waters as a front-end or backend developer for apps or websites, or if you have a skill for sales communication that you’d like to sharpen, this is the perfect opportunity to dabble. Startup Weekend is a learning environment and there are always people of different skill levels in attendance. Those attending with more experience are happy to teach others and give advice.” -Jaclyn Hudak, Ready Maker Design @JaclynHudak

4. Challenge Yourself
Are you an expert in website design and want to learn app development? Is there an area of design that you wish you had more experience in? Whether it’s creating apps, websites, logos, or marketing, you can join a team who needs you to create something quickly; a great way to challenge yourself and build new skills without the pressure to be absolutely perfect.

5. Build A Business“The bottom line is that Startup Weekend is the best place to launch a startup. If you’ve had an idea in your head but haven’t done anything about it, there’s no better event to get started. You’ll be surrounded by really smart and driven people who want to work together on building something from the ground up. Maybe you’ll work on your idea, or maybe someone else’s idea will pique your interest. Startup Weekend is the place to validate a business idea, build a product and launch a startup in just 54 hours.” – Mike Chan, Co-founder of Ribl @mikewchan